NOTES

Pujols' Comments Don't Faze Glavine

NEW YORK — After Albert Pujols dismissed Tom Glavine's seven shutout innings in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, saying the left-hander "wasn't good at all," Glavine refused to enter the fray.

"If it's about what somebody said, I have nothing to say," Glavine said. "Everyone's entitled to their opinion."

Mets Manager Willie Randolph downplayed Pujols' comments.

"It depends on how it was said," he said. "He's a class guy.... Maybe he was trying to say he didn't think [Glavine] was exceptional. I don't think there was any disrespect at all."

Pujols was hitless in three Game 1 plate appearances against Glavine, then lined out to start the ninth against Billy Wagner. St. Louis lost, 2-0.

And apparently none of it sat well with Pujols.

He snapped at reporters near his locker late Thursday night, then slapped at a chair, which flew backward and struck a New York-area reporter in the foot and thigh.

The snit temporarily over with, Pujols was asked about Glavine.

"He wasn't good. He wasn't good at all," he told reporters. "I think we hit the ball hard, we didn't get some breaks. I say he wasn't good at all. We just didn't get some opportunities and that's it.... [He did the] same thing that he always does. Throw a changeup, fastball and that was it."

Pujols has often had a chilly relationship with reporters; two days before he had ordered a handful away from his "freakin' " locker, then told them they were "a pain."

His assessment of Glavine brought boos in his first at-bat Friday. He then flied to right field, extending his postseason hitless streak to 11 at-bats. It was 12 before he singled in the seventh.

*

Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen, who was one for 14 in this postseason and has a sore left shoulder, was benched for Game 2.

"It's not an enjoyable decision," Manager Tony La Russa said.

Rolen said he was healthy and arrived at Shea Stadium on Friday expecting to play.

"He said he's OK to go," La Russa said. "But, yeah, I watched him [Thursday]. Just, to me, something is prohibiting his stroke from being right. I don't think this is something that would be good for him or good for us."

Through Game 1 of the NLCS, Rolen has hit .167 (14 for 84) in six postseason series.